5 Oct, 2010
Asia-Pacific News
Phnom Penh - Cambodia's appeal court on Tuesday heard the case brought by opposition leader Sam Rainsy against his two-year jail term imposed in a dispute over border markers with Vietnam.
The court said it would announce the verdict on October 13.
Sam Rainsy, who lives in France, was sentenced in absentia in January on charges of racial incitement and damaging public property after he uprooted border markers along the Cambodian-Vietnam border in October 2009.
Two Cambodian villagers were jailed for a year over the same incident.
Yim Sovann, a spokesman for the Sam Rainsy Party, said the party felt that the court would likely uphold the conviction.
'We understand that this is political, and that the ruling party wants to muzzle all the people who have different opinions from the government regarding the border issue,' Yim Sovann said.
'This is a kind of intimidation to those who live along the borders,' he said.
The opposition party has charged that land rights of Cambodian farmers in the area were not being respected by the demarcation process along the 1,270-kilometre border, which is scheduled to be completed by 2012.
The incident riled Hanoi, which is a close ally of Prime Minister Hun Sen's government. Vietnam has significant interests in agribusiness, aviation, telecommunications and banking in Cambodia.
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